Stone Snake
It takes a certain kind of mind to want to create a golem. The years of effort that can be involved may, if one is fortunate, result in a servant that is just about capable of following orders. Most of those who make the attempt recognise the extreme difficulty and rely heavily on the work of others for the design and spells involved. But occassionally there is someone crazy or brilliant enough to try coming up with everything on their own. One such was Gerald Widegirdle.
A largely self-taught mage, Gerald had heard of studying other people's but didn't like the concept. For him, success came from creating everything himself, no matter how many attempts it took, and when it came to golems Gerald made a lot of attempts. His efforts to create a regular hafling shaped golem were hindered by his lack of knowledge about anatomy, especially how limbs work, and his somewhat tenuous grasp of how to animate objects.
After the 20th golem tore itself apart when he ordered it to lift it's arm Gerald was almost ready to give up. But then he noticed the surving writhing on the ground in a manner reminiscent of a snake. The idea of a halfling shaped golem was abandoned and Gerald turned his attention to making a snake golem. Not one to do things by half measures Gerald decided that this snake should be at least 20ft long with thick scales to ward off attacks. For the next several years Gerald applied himself to learning how to carve stone so that he could create his snake as well as spending time studying how snakes actually move. His home became filled with snakes, many of which other people would have judged quite dangerous.
It took decades for Gerald to complete construction of his snake. It might have been finished sooner, but he had frequent breaks to recover from the poison from yet another snake bite. Looking at his creation coiled up in his basedment brought a smile to his face, until he remembered he still needed to animate it. More years of work followed and Gerald was getting into his dotage by the time he was ready to bring the snake to life. When the final spell was cast, Gerald watched with pride as the snake sarted to shift and move. Keen to see it move around, Gerald looked around for where he could order it to go, and then realised that there was no way for it to leave the basement. Gerald barely paused for a second before ordering his snake to smash through the ceiling to get outside. Unfortunately for Gerald he was struck by falling debris and died before he could see his masterpiece slither out through the ruins of the house.
Gerald's unique approach to spellcasting had imbued the snake golem with an unusually high degree of autonomy, along with a strong self-preservation instinct. WIth no one around to give it orders the snake smashed it's way through town on travelled to the Madriol swamp in the south of the Kingdom of Filishar. Taking up residence in the southwestern part of the swamp the snake protected itself by pretending to be a statue much of the top, going so far as to allow some plants to grow over it's stone scales. However, if someone got too inquisitive or if an obvious spell caster approached the stone snake would attack, obliterating the intruders before returning to it's peaceful imitation of a statue.
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